Wings of Flight
by Mallowfeather of Earthclan
Summary: Nightclan challenge. About Soaringclan and their owl attack. Very gruesome, rated T definitely. First challenge ever!


**Hey, first Nightclan challenge about a clan called Soaringclan that have wings and then there is an owl attack. Probably over the word limit a bit...**

I soar across the sky. The feeling of sun on my pelt, the wind whistling through my fur; I am in heaven. Eaglepaw flies next to me. His golden tabby pelt and wings are the exact same colour as the sun, and he looks like a ray of sunlight. I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Flightpaw and I'm an apprentice of Soaringclan. We hunt for prey in the sky. Unlike our rival clan, Swoopingclan, whose wings are small, streamlined and beautiful, our wings are big, gangly things that make us clumsy flyers. It's no surprise we often go hungry during leafbare. Anyway, we are on a hunting trip. On sunny days, the whole clan heads out to hunt, except for the elders and queens. My mentor, Wingshadow, is flying above me right now to keep an eye on my hunting technique. I have small wings, and so my clan think I can't hunt properly. They're wrong, I can hunt better than them! When the sun is shining like this, I feel completely content soaring through the sky, with the rustling and flapping of feathers being the only noise. Bigstar leads the hunting trip as he has the biggest wings. Each one is as big as me, and I'm nearly a warrior! Suddenly, there is a bird cry and I see a huge group of pigeons ahead of us. Instinctively, we all speed up. I feel Eaglepaw veer uncontrollably left and move out of the way to avoid being hit. The whole clan does this! They often dip up and down and side to side. Despite our terrible flying, we catch up to the prey. Bigstar catches one first. He crashes into it and they start falling. I prepare to attack myself, when I feel the rush of wings behind me. I turn in the air and see owls. Hundreds of them. Brown ones, white ones, every type you can imagine. The lead owl opens his mouth and let's out a ferocious screech. I turn to look at my clanmates. They are so wrapped up in the hunt that they haven't noticed the owls!

"Owls!" I cry and Wingshadow turns in midair. Her mouth drops open as she realises how many owls there are. We don't stand a chance. The rest of the clan quickly notices as the owls close in. We move into our defensive positions and I realise with a deep sense of foreboding that this is one battle we cannot win. I manage to touch Eaglepaw's shoulder with the tip of my tail before we are thrown into battle. A fully-grown owl slams into my side, screeching ferociously. It is pure white and its eyes are full of hatred and anger. We stole its skies and killed its prey, and now it's going to kill us. I slash at him with my claws and bite deep into his wings and he lets go with a heart-wrenching screech. I have crippled his wing, he will never fly again. Looking around me, I can see that we are no match for the owls. They outnumber us ten twenty to one. All around, my clanmates are fighting for their lives. Suddenly, there is a hiss and a small brown owl rakes my flank with her talons. I manage to give her a few nips to remember me by before she flies off. As I hover in the carnage, a thought pops into my head. I don't have to die. If I fly and hide in the branches of a tree, I will be kept safe. Before I can stop myself, I press my wings to my side and dive down to the Tall Birch. I thankfully collapse onto one of the branches and heave a sigh of relief. After a while, the sounds of battle stop and I poke my head out. The owls are gone, and the bodies of my clanmates lie on the floor. Slowly, I pad past them, searching for signs of life and seeing if all are there, and what killed them. Bigstar is easiest to spot. His white pelt is matted with blood and he has been repeatedly bitten and nipped. His wings have been torn off and lie on the ground beside him. I look away, bile rising in my throat. Nearby, I find the bodies of Mottlefeather and Ospreyheart. The two of them were mates, and they died together, tails entwined. Under a bush, I find Dovetail's mangled body, torn up into little pieces. Just past her, I find Ravenwing, missing a leg and a wing. The owls are ruthless killers, they didn't stop until they were all dead. Continuing on, I find Hawkswoop and... Wingshadow. I scramble closer as Wingshadow's tail twitches slightly.

"W... Wingshadow?" I manage to croak out. One of her eyes opens and focuses on me

"Flightpaw..." She rasps. "Eaglepaw...Camp... Kits..." Her voice trails off.

"No!" I yell but it's too late. Her eyes glass over and her wing gives one last twitch before falling limp. Tail dragging, I trail back to camp. As I pad in the entrance, Featherwing rushes over.

"Flightpaw, are there any other survivors?" She asks hopefully. I shake my head.

"Oh" she sighs. "So all that remains of Soaringclan is me, you, Eaglepaw, Kestrelheart, Crookedwing and Burntfeather, and the new kits if course"

"What are the kits called?" I ask dully.

"Bigkit, Windkit, Wingkit and Owlkit" Eaglepaw says, coming out of the medicine den. He has various scratches on him, but apart from that he is fine.

"We should join Swoopingclan" Crookedwing says from the entrance to the elders den. As I glance around our group of survivors, I know that we all agree that this is the best idea. In Swoopingclan, we can start again. We can try as hard as we can to forget the sights we've seen in the battle of the owls, but we all know we'll never forget. We'll never forget the bravery if our mentors, clanmates and friends as they fought their last battle. Even when I earned my warrior name of Flightfeather, and had kits of my own with a Swoopingclan Tom named Fallenbird, I never forgot. Wingkit, Mottlekit, Ravenkit, Hawkkit, Ospreykit and Dovekit remind me every day.


End file.
